we all know what it looks like.

太空，

We've been surrounded by images of space

我們都知道它的樣子。

our whole lives,

太空的圖景一直環繞著

from the speculative images

我們整個一生，

of science fiction

從科幻小說中

to the inspirational visions of artists

推測出的景象，

to the increasingly beautiful pictures

到藝術家靈感觸發的圖景，

made possible by complex technologies.

乃至越來越美麗的照片

But whilst we have

這得益于複雜的技術手段。

an overwhelmingly vivid

儘管我們

visual understanding of space,

已經生動地瞭解了

we have no sense of what space sounds like.

太空看上去是怎樣的，

And indeed, most people associate space with silence.

但我們對太空聽上去如何卻一無所知。

But the story of how

事實上，大多數人都認為太空是寂靜無聲的。

we came to understand the universe

但是我們

is just as much a story of listening

認識宇宙的過程中

as it is by looking.

傾聽所占的比重

And yet despite this,

與觀測是同樣的。

hardly any of us have ever heard space.

但是儘管如此，

How many of you here

我們卻幾乎從來沒有聽見過太空的聲音。

could describe the sound

在座的有多少人

of a single planet or star?

可以描述一下

Well in case you've ever wondered,

一顆行星或恒星的聲音？

this is what the Sun sounds like.

如果你想知道的話，

(Static)

這就是太陽的聲音。

(Crackling)

（靜音）

(Static)

（劈啪聲）

(Crackling)

（靜音）

This is the planet Jupiter.

（劈啪聲）

(Soft crackling)

這是木星。

And this is the space probe Cassini

（輕柔的劈啪聲）

pirouetting through the ice rings of Saturn.

這是卡西尼航天探測器

(Crackling)

正旋轉著穿過土星的冰環

This is a a highly condensed clump

（啵啵聲）

of neutral matter,

這是一個高度壓縮的

spinning in the distant universe.

中子聚合

(Tapping)

旋轉在遙遠的宇宙中。

So my artistic practice

（敲擊聲）

is all about listening

所以說我的藝術創作

to the weird and wonderful noises

就是聆聽

emitted by the magnificent celestial objects

就是聆聽這些奇怪而美妙的聲音

that make up our universe.

正是發出了這些聲音的巨大天體

And you may wonder,

組成了我們的宇宙。

how do we know what these sounds are?

可能你會問，

How can we tell the difference

我們是怎麼知道這些聲音的？

between the sound of the Sun

我們如何能區分

and the sound of a pulsar?

太陽的聲音

Well the answer

脈衝星的聲音？

is the science of radio astronomy.

答案就是

Radio astronomers

射電天文學。

study radio waves from space

射電天文學家們

using sensitive antennas and receivers,

研究來自太空的無線電波

which give them precise information

他們使用靈敏的天線和接收器，

about what an astronomical object is

從而獲得準確的信息

and where it is in our night sky.

瞭解到天體的狀況

And just like the signals

以及在我們夜空中的位置。

that we send and receive here on Earth,

正如那些

we can convert these transmissions into sound

我們在地球上收發的信號，

using simple analog techniques.

我們也能把這些電波轉化為聲音，

And therefore, it's through listening

只需一些簡單的模擬技術。

that we've come to uncover

所以，通過聆聽

some of the universe's most important secrets --

我們逐漸揭開

its scale, what it's made of

一些最重要的宇宙奧秘——

and even how old it is.

它的範圍，組成構造，

So today, I'm going to tell you a short story

甚至它的年齡。

of the history of the universe through listening.

所以，今天我要展示給大家的，

It's punctuated

就是透過聆聽瞭解宇宙的歷史。

by three quick anecdotes,

它包括

which show how accidental encounters

3小段，

with strange noises

展示出那些偶然聽到的

gave us some of the most important information

奇怪聲音是如何

we have about space.

讓我們瞭解到關於太空的

Now this story doesn't start

一些最為重要的信息。

with vast telescopes

這個故事並不是來自

or futuristic spacecraft,

大型的望遠鏡

but a rather more humble technology --

或非常先進的宇宙飛船，

and in fact, the very medium

而是來自一種相當平凡的器材——

which gave us the telecommunications revolution

而事實上，正是這種器材

that we're all part of today:

給我們帶來了電信革命

the telephone.

今天的我們都是這個革命的一部份：

It's 1876, it's in Boston,

那就是電話。

and this is Alexander Graham Bell

那是1876年，波士頓，

who was working with Thomas Watson

這位就是貝爾（Alexander Graham Bell）

on the invention of the telephone.

他和Thomas Watson一起

A key part of their technical set up

發明了電話機。

was a half-mile long length of wire,

他們的技術設計的關鍵部份

which was thrown across the rooftops

是一條半英里長的電線，

of several houses in Boston.

這條線橫跨過波士頓

The line carried the telephone signals

好幾家房屋的屋頂。

that would later make Bell a household name.

這條線承載了電話信號

But like any long length of charged wire,

它使得貝爾後來成為一個家喻戶曉的名字。

it also inadvertently became

但是就像任何長距離的帶電電線，

an antenna.

這條線也成為一條意料之外的

Thomas Watson

天線。

spent hours listening

Thomas Watson

to the strange crackles and hisses

經常連續數小時聆聽

and chirps and whistles

那些奇怪的劈啪聲和嘶嘶聲

that his accidental antenna detected.

各種鳴音和哨音

Now you have to remember,

這些都是他那個無心之作的天線探測到的。

this is 10 years before

你們要記得，

Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of radio waves --

直到十年之後

15 years before Nikola Tesla's four-tuned circuit --

赫茲才證明了無線電波的存在——

nearly 20 years before Marconi's first broadcast.

十五年之後泰斯拉（美國電機工程師）才發明了四調諧電路——

So Thomas Watson wasn't listening to us.

近二十年後，馬可尼才首次進行無線廣播。

We didn't have the technology

所以Thomas Watson聽到的聲音並不是人為的。

to transmit.

那時還沒有技術

So what were these strange noises?

去廣播。

Watson was in fact listening

那麼這些奇怪的噪音是什麽呢？

to very low-frequency radio emissions

Watson事實上聽到的

caused by nature.

是非常低頻率的無線電輻射，

Some of the crackles and pops were lightning,

是自然界產生的。

but the eerie whistles

有些咔嚓和噼啪聲是閃電，

and curiously melodious chirps

但是那些陰森森的哨音

had a rather more exotic origin.

以及有著奇怪旋律的鳴音

Using the very first telephone,

則有著非常奇異的源頭。

Watson was in fact

就是使用第一部電話機，

dialed into the heavens.

Watson事實上

As he correctly guessed,

撥通了天堂的電話。

some of these sounds were caused

而且正如他所猜想的，

by activity on the surface of the Sun.

其中一些聲音來自

It was a solar wind

太陽表面的活動。

interacting with our ionosphere

那是太陽風

that he was listening to --

與我們的電離層發生相互作用

a phenomena which we can see

他所聽到的

at the extreme northern and southern latitudes of our planet

就是我們能看到的一種現象

as the aurora.

在地球的南北高緯度上

So whilst inventing the technology

就是極光。

that would usher in the telecommunications revolution,

於是就在發明了

Watson had discovered

引發電信革命的技術手段的同時，

that the star at the center of our solar system

Watson也發現了

emitted powerful radio waves.

我們太陽系中心的恒星

He had accidentally been the first person

發出的強力的無線電波。

to tune in to them.

他不經意地成為第一個人

Fast-forward 50 years,

調通了它們的頻道。

and Bell and Watson's technology

快進50年，

has completely transformed

貝爾和Watson的技術

global communications.

徹底地改變了

But going from slinging some wire

全世界的通訊狀況。

across rooftops in Boston

但是從拉起一條電線

to laying thousands and thousands of miles of cable

跨過波士頓的幾個房頂，

on the Atlantic Ocean seabed

演變到鋪設數千英里的線纜

is no easy matter.

在大西洋底，

And so before long,

並不是一個簡單的過程。

Bell were looking to new technologies

所以很快地，

to optimize their revolution.

貝爾就在探索新的技術

Radio could carry sound without wires.

來優化他們的革命。

But the medium is lossy --

無線電可以無需電線就可以承載聲音。

it's subject to a lot of noise and interference.

但是載體會有耗損——

So Bell employed an engineer

容易有噪音和干擾。

to study those noises,

因此貝爾雇傭了一名工程師

to try and find out where they came from,

來研究這些噪音，

with a view towards building

試圖找到它們的來源，

the perfect hardware codec, which would get rid of them

從而可以建立起

so they could think about using radio

完美的硬件解碼器能擺脫這些噪音，

for the purposes of telephony.

因此他們可能想到使用無線電

Most of the noises

用在電話技術上。

that the engineer, Karl Jansky, investigated

大部份的噪音

were fairly prosaic in origin.

經過工程師 Karl Jansky的研究後發現

They turned out to be lightning

其源頭都很普通。

or sources of electrical power.

或者是閃電

But there was one persistent noise

或者是來自其他電源。

that Jansky couldn't identify,

但是有一個持續存在的噪音

and it seemed to appear

Jansky無法辨認，

in his radio headset

這種噪音似乎在

four minutes earlier each day.

他的無線電聽筒中

Now any astronomer will tell you,

每天都提早4分鐘出現。

this is the telltale sign

現在任何一個天文學家都可以告訴你，

of something that doesn't originate from Earth.

這顯然標示了

Jansky had made a historic discovery,

該訊號並非來自地球。

that celestial objects could emit radio waves

Jansky的這一發現具有歷史意義，

as well as light waves.

太空中的天體既發射無線電波，

Fifty years on

也發射光波。

from Watson's accidental encounter with the Sun,

50年來，

Jansky's careful listening

從Watson無意之中收聽到太陽算起，

ushered in a new age of space exploration:

Jansky的認真聆聽

the radio astronomy age.

開啟了空間探索的新紀元：

Over the next few years,

射電天文學時代。

astronomers connected up their antennas to loudspeakers

在接下來的數年間，

and learned about our radio sky,

天文學家們將他們的天線連上揚聲器

about Jupiter and the Sun,

認識到我們的無線電天空，

by listening.

認識了木星和太陽，

Let's jump ahead again.

就是通過聆聽。

It's 1964,

讓我們再跳前一段。

and we're back at Bell Labs.

這是1964年，

And once again,

我們回到貝爾實驗室。

two scientists have got a problem with noise.

再一次，

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson

兩個科學家也遇到了噪音的問題。

were using the horn antenna

Arno Penzias 和Robert Wilson

at Bell's Holmdel laboratory

正使用喇叭天線

to study the Milky Way

在貝爾的Holmdel實驗室（位於新澤西）

with extraordinary precision.

研究銀河

They were really listening

他們的精確度是超乎尋常的。

to the galaxy in high fidelity.

他們真的是以高保真的方式

There was a glitch in their soundtrack.

傾聽整個銀河系。

A mysterious persistent noise

在他們錄製的音軌中有一個小差錯。

was disrupting their research.

一個揮之不去的神秘噪音

It was in the microwave range,

干擾著他們的研究。

and it appeared to be coming

這個噪音在微波範圍，

from all directions simultaneously.

而且它似乎從各個方向

Now this didn't make any sense,

同時出現。

and like any reasonable engineer or scientist,

這根本就說不通。

they assumed that the problem must be the technology itself,

就像任何理性的工程師或科學家，

it must be the dish.

他們以為問題一定處在技術本身，

There were pigeons roosting in the dish.

一定是天線的問題。

And so perhaps once they cleaned up the pigeon droppings,

有鴿子棲息在天線上。

get the disk kind of operational again,

所以可能一旦他們清掃乾淨鴿子糞，

normal operations would resume.

讓天線重新運轉，

But the noise didn't disappear.

就可以恢復正常的運行。

The mysterious noise

但是那個噪音并沒有消失。

that Penzias and Wilson were listening to

這個神秘的噪音

turned out to be the oldest and most significant sound

也就是Penzias和Wilson聽到的

that anyone had ever heard.

原來是人類能聽到的最為古老

It was cosmic radiation

也最為重要的聲音。

left over from the very birth of the universe.

那就是宇宙輻射

This was the first experimental evidence

它產生自宇宙誕生的一刹那。

that the Big Bang existed

這是第一個實驗證據

and the universe was born at a precise moment

證明了大爆炸的存在

some 14.7 billion years ago.

證明了宇宙是在某一確切的時間點誕生的

So our story ends

大約147億年前。

at the beginning --

所以我們的故事就要結束在

the beginning of all things, the Big Bang.

這個最開始的時刻——

This is the noise that Penzias and Wilson heard --

也就是整個世界的最開始，大爆炸。

the oldest sound that you're ever going to hear,

這就是Penzias 和 Wilson 聽到的那個噪音——

the cosmic microwave background radiation

你所能聽到的最古老的聲音，

left over from the Big Bang.

宇宙微波背景輻射

(Fuzz)

是宇宙大爆炸遺留下來的。

Thanks.

（滋滋聲）

(Applause)

謝謝大家。